1. Field
Embodiments of the invention relate to the field of data security and access control. More specifically, one embodiment of the invention relates to a system and method for assigning permissions to an application based on the type of digital signature accompanying the application. These permissions are used to control access to different resources within an embedded system.
2. General Background
Over the last decade, major advancements in high-technology have occurred, and such advancements continue to occur at an accelerated pace. As many of these advancements involve the transmission and storage of digital data, a number of techniques have been developed for controlling access to digital data.
For instance, cryptography is commonly used to securely transmit information between a sending device and a receiving device. One cryptographic technique involves digital signatures, which are normally used to (i) authenticate the identity of a signatory for the digital data, and (ii) ensure that the original digital data has not been tampered with prior to receipt at the receiving device.
Normally, a digital signature accompanies a message, whether it is encrypted or not. In the event that either the signatory of the digital signature is not recognized (i.e., public key of the signatory is not available to the receiving device) or the digital data has been altered after creation of the digital signature, processing of the digital data is avoided. In other words, the digital data is not processed because there is no trust in the authenticity of the data. As used, digital signatures currently offer no granularity with respect to access control (permissions) where different permission levels enable access to different resources at the receiving device.